A Manhattan appeals court has struck the answer of New York City and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in a worker-injury case after the defendants failed to produce witnesses and then produced an unprepared witness.

An Appellate Division, First Department, panel wrote in McHugh v. City of New York, 155796/12, that “the city's and the MTA's unexplained noncompliance with a series of court-ordered disclosure mandates … constituted willful and contumacious behavior.”

The decision modified a 2016 ruling by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Ellen Coin, who denied plaintiff Francis McHugh's motion to strike defendants' answers for discovery violations.